Top Four Takeaways from Multicultural Health National

Pharmaceutical and healthcare brands continually search for new and better ways to reach patients, yet multicultural marketing efforts are often woefully absent—even for the largest growing population. This was a primary point of PatientPoint Senior Vice President of Content and Creative Kate Merz’s presentation at Multicultural Health National, a conference held this past October that gathered leading thought-leaders to discuss best practices for reaching key multicultural populations in the U.S.

Merz joined NBCUniversal Hispanic Group Vice President of Client Development Ellen Falb-Newmark to present on the impact of point-of-care marketing, as well as the importance of Hispanic marketing in DTC healthcare efforts.

If you were unable to attend, or simply want a refresher, here are the top four takeaways from their presentation:

Fact: Hispanics have unique health risks.

Among Mexican-American adults, age 20 and older, 32 percent have heart disease1

Hispanics have two times the rate of chronic liver disease than non-Hispanics2

With more than 75 percent affected, Hispanic adults have the greatest prevalence of obesity3

Takeaway: These figures demonstrate both low disease awareness and high diagnosis rates, often resulting from a lack of Spanish-speaking doctors and Spanish education materials. Brands have a unique opportunity to effectively communicate with the Hispanic community by offering Spanish language educational resources at the point of care.

Fact: Hispanics’ unmet health needs have a quantifiable cost. $29 billion is the average spend of Hispanics in annual consumer healthcare, which is two times the rate of non-Hispanics.4

Takeaway: Hispanics care about their health and are willing to spend significant money to take care of it. Brands who are not marketing to Hispanics or offering Spanish-language materials are missing an opportunity to grow their customer base and revenues.

Fact: Point of care offers brands category exclusivity and more than a third of Hispanics (35%) are much more loyal toward companies that show appreciation for their culture by advertising in Spanish. 4

Fact: Marketing at the point of care is proven to impact the Hispanic population. In one Rx example, PatientPoint tested Spanish-language marketing material to complement a brand’s English-language resources. Incremental NRx improved by +11.43% when the Hispanic program ran. The addition of the Hispanic program also resulted in +60% incremental lift.

Takeaway: When budgeting for a new campaign, brands should include point-of-care marketing with Spanish-language materials. There is a huge need for this material, and it delivers results that matter.

Multicultural Health National was a fantastic opportunity to hear from leaders who recognize the importance of multicultural marketing. Merz and Falb-Newmark echoed these thoughts, urging presentation attendees to join PatientPoint in reaching this surging population—who spends money on healthcare and craves in-language health information—because they remain woefully underserved.